Analysis: In democracies’ political chaos, new model emerges
LONDON — Bickering in the Oval Office. Shouting at the Houses of Parliament. Rioting on the Champs-Elysees.
It’s a chaotic moment for the countries that have long underpinned the global order, a time of instability for the balance of power that has reigned for decades.
Across the world, people are questioning truths they had long held to be self-evident, and they are dismissing some of them as fake news. They are replacing traditions they had long seen as immutable with haphazard reinvention.
In France, people who feel left behind by a globalizing world have spent the last few weeks marching and rioting to protest a government they call elitist and out of touch. The government, whose initial dismissiveness seemed to confirm their suspicions, was finally forced to change tack.